1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a setting and a display of a user interface in a printing system in which two independent printing apparatuses are connected and cooperate to produce one output matter.
2. Description of the Related Art
There has been recently proposed an electro-photographic apparatus using a clear toner as a special printing agent. The clear toner is a transparent printing agent for producing an image having transparency.
Use of this clear toner allows various types of expressions, making it possible to improve an added value of the output matter. For example, there is an electro-photographic apparatus in which an apparatus for adding a clear toner in addition to colored toners such as CMYK and the like is installed to enable production of an output matter using the clear toner. However, if this type of electro-photographic apparatus performs a print using a special printing agent such as the clear toner, there may occur a problem that a total toner amount thereof used for printing remarkably increases as compared to that of the conventional print using toners of four colors.
Particularly when applying the special printing agent such as the clear toner to a color print of an electro-photographic system, a special printing agent image in addition to a conventional image by toners of four colors of C, M, Y and K is formed on an intermediate transcriptional element and it is necessary to further transcript it on a sheet.
In consequence, an amount of toners necessary for printing at each process increases, thus applying large loads at each process.
For overcoming this problem, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2007-011028 discloses a method of calculating an application amount printable by a special printing agent based upon an application amount of the four-color toners of C, M, Y and K.
However, if the application amount of the special printing agent is calculated by the method disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2007-011028, it may be possible that the application amount of the special printing agent becomes zero.
For example, it may be possible that a sum of the calculated application amounts of the four-color toners exceeds a total application amount appropriately fixable on a sheet in a printing apparatus.
In this case, even if a user instructs a print using a special printing agent, since the print using the special printing agent according to the user's instruction can not be performed, a visual effect by the special printing agent can not be obtained.
For overcoming this problem, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2008-139589 discloses a technology that when determining that the print using the special printing agent according to the instruction of the user can not be performed by one time of fixation, a method of forming the special printing agent image is altered.
For example, first, a toner other than a special printing agent is used to print and fix an image on a sheet, which is outputted. In addition, the special printing agent is used to print and fix a special printing agent image on the outputted sheet. A print of performing twice of the fixation is called a two-pass print.
When using the two-pass print, it is possible to print using an amount of the special printing agent exceeding an amount of the special printing agent determined by taking a total application amount allowable in the printing apparatus into account. Inconsequence, an output matter having a visual effect by the special printing agent desired by a user can be obtained.
In this way, use of the apparatus for outputting the clear toner leads to the solution for the problem such as a limitation of the toner amount and the like. However, since the print job is resultantly divided into plural ones and a job by a user is further interposed, there is a possibility that human errors occur.
Therefore, there is proposed the establishment of a printing system in which an electro-photographic apparatus using a colored toner and an electro-photographic apparatus using a clear toner are connected to perform production of an output matter using the clear toner all together (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2008-145595). For example, for a user using the clear toner, there is provided a printing system of connecting the electro-photographic apparatus using the colored toner and the electro-photographic apparatus using the clear toner.
The printing system disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2008-145595 is constructed in such a manner as to activate operations of two printing apparatuses with one user interface. However, there are some cases where the operability is further improved when the user interface is used for each apparatus. For example, if a paper jam occurs, monitoring the user interface in each apparatus is more convenient for a user to understand the operation condition and handle the problem. In general, documents describing conventional technologies do not disclose the above technical concept.
Accordingly, for the user recognizing a condition of a print job executed by the printing system, it is required to operate two user interfaces by gathering information of the respective printing apparatuses displayed on the respective interfaces. However, there is a problem that the user has a difficulty in correctly understanding the processing condition of the printing job and correctly operating the user interface for completion of the print job. Therefore, the conventional technology does not improve the operability in the printing system.